Clarity
by DarkLuminescence
Summary: Prompt: Clarke and Murphy are kidnapped and having to work together to get away. (Their feelings for each other come into play as well.) T for some violence/swearing.
1. Chapter 1

"Could you, I don't know, not do that?" Clarke's tone was one Murphy was all too familiar with, and with next to no space and their legs and arms tangled in each other's, sitting still wasn't exactly easy.

"I'm trying to get comfortable." He made a point of dodging her, as he pushed himself up against the dirt wall that surrounded them.

Okay, so they weren't in the greatest of situations. They had somehow ended up together alone, trekking through the woods, having lost the group. One second they were bickering and the next, the ground gave out beneath them, and what wasn't an ideal twist of fate, became much more frustrating, when Clarke's shoes were in Murphy's face, and his hands were pushing against her cheek. After a couple minutes of sorting limbs and rearranging themselves, they came to an awkward crouching position, that started to get uncomfortable really fast.

But— if they were honest with themselves for once when it came to the other, it wasn't as bad as they were making it out to be.

Over the course of several months, an understanding had formed between the two, which eventually became friendship— and then perhaps something more, not that either one of them was in an hurry to admit it. They were more comfortable fighting— it was familiar territory for them, and when they started, it usually got pretty heated, and hell, it was even kind of fun.

"Yeah, well, you're taking up all the room."

Clarke's face and hands were covered in a thin layer of dirt, and Murphy could make out a brand new cut on her forehead, a tiny amount of blood dripping along her skin. Without thinking it through, he wiped it away with his thumb, his eyes moving from the cut, to her own, which looked like they could see right through him.

He wiped the blood onto his pants, and tried to give her more room.

"Sorry." He mumbled, his mouth dry, and lips chapped. They had been stuck in this fucking hole, for over an hour at least, and he was starting to cramp, and being in such close proximity to Clarke was not helping, especially when she looked like she'd rather be stuck there with anyone but him.

Honestly, he was right— but not for the reasons he thought.

She hated how her throat had tightened the second he touched her, how when he looked at her she didn't remember exactly how to breathe, and every time he moved around, she could feel him against her, his heart a steady beat, while hers felt like it could explode at any moment.

She hated him, because she didn't hate him at all.

Not anymore.

And it was throwing her off.

"Look, we might as well talk. I don't think anyone is coming any time soon, and, personally, the silence isn't helping."

Clarke narrowed her eyes. She never liked to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him, but he had a point, and in this case, her pride wasn't really the top priority here.

"Fine." She leaned her head back. "What could possibly be on your mind, Murphy? I'd love to know."

That signature grin of his appeared out of nowhere, and she knew it was him initiating a game they often played.

"Really? I'm more interested in what the Princess thinks about before she goes to sleep at night."

Clarke smiled. It was, of all things, playful. Mischievous even.

"I'd tell you, but then i'd have to kill you."

"So you have nothing to lose."

Clarke's smile vanished, and her entire exterior softened.

"Is that what you think?" She looked at her hands. "That I want you dead?"

"Don't you?"

Before she could even answer, the sound of footsteps caused both of their heads to snap upward. They reached for each other, pretty absentmindedly, and when several faces covered in masks, with tattoos peaking out from underneath them, came into view, that's when the situation went from bad, to much worse.

It didn't take long for the grounders to get them out, and back to one of their villages where they were thrown into a room much nicer than the hole, yet it felt far more dangerous. They had space to move, to breathe, to think— but now the chance of them being found by their own people was a lot slimmer.

They were very much on their own for now.

The expression on Murphy's face was beginning to rub Clarke the wrong way, and leave a bad taste in her mouth. She had seen him afraid before. Several times. He didn't hide it very well— but he had grown so much even in the last few weeks, that it wasn't a state she saw him in often.

"We're going to figure this out." She hoped she sounded sincere. For once, she didn't believe in her own words— but she sure as hell wanted him to.

"You don't know what they're capable of, Clarke." He was whispering, a slight tremor in his voice. He slid against the nearest wall, until he was sitting on the ground across from her.

"You think you do. You've got this idea in your head, and it's pretty horrific, but it doesn't come close to surviving through some one on one time with them, when they're angry, and scared and desperate."

Clarke felt sick to her stomach. She remember what he looked like, beaten and bloody, his finger nails ripped away, his skin raw. The outcome of having banished him for his crimes.

He had deserved that punishment.

What he hadn't deserved what the grounders had done to him. No one did.

But she could understand them. (After all, hadn't they done the same to Lincoln?)

"First, they took a couple of nails. I thought that was bad. That it couldn't get much worse— but I was wrong. They chained me up, lashed me until my body didn't feel like it belonged to me anymore. They choked me, cut me, beat me— and then they got me so sick, I was coughing up blood for days before I showed up in camp."

Tears stung in Clarke's eyes, but she blinked them away as quickly as they had come, and Murphy never noticed.

"A lot has changed since then." She tried to keep her voice even. "We've made deals with them before, we can do it again."

"And if that doesn't work?"

"Then we do what we have to do, and run."

Murphy lifted his head. He knew what she meant. At this point, neither one of them was a stranger to killing, though they both knew it was easier for him then it was for her.

When the grounders came, Murphy stood and walked in front of Clarke. She reached for his hand and held onto it more tightly than she intended, but it sent a much needed warmth through his body. A reminder that he wasn't alone this time.

"What do you want with us?" Clarke asked. She had never been the type of person to stay quiet.

The older of the three men who stood in front of them raised his knife and pointed it toward her.

"You're the one, who gave Finn of the sky people a painless death, he did not deserve."

Clarke almost flinched at the memory of Finn, at the memory of what she did so he wouldn't suffer, so her people wouldn't die.

"That was _months_ ago." Murphy practically hissed. Now the knife was in his face.

"You are correct. But apparently fate was on our side, when it landed you in one of our traps."

He nodded toward one of the men, who grabbed hold of Clarke's wrist, and held a blade to her throat, before leading her outside of the room. Her hand slipped through Murphy's fingers, and the more he fought to get to her, the angrier the other two men got, before one of them brought their fist to his face and he fell to the ground.

"Don't hurt him!" Clarke cried, before she disappeared behind a corner.

(Had he been conscious when she said it, he'd have had the answer to his earlier question.)


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I don't know how it's been over two years since I wrote Part One of this, but I've been really in the mood to write lately so here I am, finally posting Part 2.**

Clarke was led to an underground room where the grounders chained each of her wrists and ankles to the wall. She struggled against their hold, the sounds of metal hitting concrete filling the room.

"Please. Please don't do this." She begged.

One of the younger men reached for a knife that hung on the opposite wall. Without a word, he approached her, lifting the bottom of her shirt with the tip of his blade. It felt cold against her skin. He began dragging is slowly along her stomach and she started to shake her head.

"You have to listen to me." She was trying so hard to keep her voice calm. "We're not your enemy anymore. If Lexa— If the Commander knew what you were doing— "

The man dug his knife into her, and she cried out, a nasty pain shooting through her. It wasn't deep enough to be life threatening, but it was deep enough to hurt.

"The Commander is weak." The oldest man said from the other side of the room. "She's a little girl who doesn't know the meaning of leadership. We have rules and traditions in place for a reason, and three months ago she spat on them. She disrespected them. So you see, you can beg all you want and you can tell us that the Commander would have our heads for this, but it won't matter in a few hours. Because you and your friend will be dead, and there's no reason to suspect me or my people. We've always kept to ourselves."

Clarke hated to admit it to herself… but she was scared. After everything she had been through since they landed on Earth, she was going to be killed tied up like an animal, in a small, dark room…completely alone.

But Murphy shouldn't have to pay the price for her mistakes.

"Okay." She said quietly. "You win. Do whatever the hell you need to do to me to help you sleep at night… but please. Please don't hurt him. He didn't do anything to you, and he wasn't involved with what happened to Finn. That was me."

She hoped they didn't know that Murphy was the one with Finn that day during the massacre.

"If we let him go, then he runs back to your people and tells them exactly where you are— which points the finger at us. You know we can't let that happen."

"No, we have something a bit different planned." He nodded at the man with red hair who had yet to speak or do anything.

He walked out of the room and moment later he was dragging in Murphy who's head was badly bleeding and who's hands were chained together, dropping him to the floor. It took a second for Murphy to look at her, but once he did, he desperately tried to break free of the man's hold on him.

"Get the fuck off of me!" He yelled, and the man responded by hitting him in the face.

"Murphy!" Clarke called out.

"It's okay." He spat blood onto the ground. "I can take a hit."

"You're going to be taking more than that."

"Lucas." A woman said, appearing at the doorway and the older man looked up. "It's your son. He's asked for you and Kai."

"We're a little busy." Lucas sounded annoyed.

"It's urgent." She insisted.

He was silent for a moment, before nodding to Kai, who backed away from Clarke and put his knife down on a nearby table.

"Keep an eye on him." Lucas ordered the man who's grip tightened on Murphy's arm.

"Of course."

And with that, they left the room.

Murphy made eye contact with Clarke and she nodded. This was there only chance on getting out of there alive.

In one swift movement, Murphy kicked his heel into the man's leg, who responded by elbowing him in the side. Murphy grunted, bending forward and the man laughed.

"I thought you said you could take a hit." The man leaned down, making sure Murphy could hear him clearly. "Or was that just something to say to impress your girlfriend?"

Murphy spun, wrapping his chains around the man's neck. Their struggle was nasty. At one point they fell to the ground, but Murphy's hold didn't loosen. It only got stronger until the man's last breath slipped from his body and he stopped moving.

Murphy grabbed the keys from the man's pockets so fast, that within seconds he was out of his chains and by Clarke's side, unlocking the ones that held her in place. She dropped herself into his arms, burying her face into his neck and clinging to him.

"You're okay." He whispered into her ear, one hand on her back and the other cradling her head. "I've got you."

He could feel her crying, so he squeezed her tighter, desperately needing her to feel safe again. A couple minutes had to have passed before she pulled away from him.

"We need to get out of here." Was all she had to say for Murphy to spring into action.

The two of them got up, each one supporting the other as they made their way to the first door. The hallway was clear, and Clarke could make out the stairway in the distance. They made their way toward it, but not before grabbing the two remaining knives from the wall.

When they had made it to the top step they could hear voices coming from outside. The air smelt of burning wood, and the two of them hoped that they would be able to sneak by unnoticed. But when they darted toward the trees, their paths were blocked by Kai and a woman who's swords were drawn.

Clarke and Murphy looked at each other, turning to run the way they had come, but the three grounders who had been sitting by the fire were now directly behind them, joined by Lucas.

"Did you really think it would be that easy?" He laughed.

"I was pretty hopeful about it actually." Murphy shrugged a little, and Clarke shot him a warning glance that practically screamed _'shut up.'_

"Hope is for the weak." The woman said in her native tongue. "Your fight is over."

Clarke lunged forward so suddenly that even Murphy was startled. Her knife tearing through the woman's throat. Kai hit her in the back with his sword's handle and she fell to the ground.

Murphy ran forward, digging his knife into Kai's side, who then fell on top of Clarke, his body weighing her down. The other grounders grabbed hold of Murphy, dragging him away from her and shoving him to the ground. They got a few good hits in, his cries vibrating through Clarke's entire body.

"Get away from him!" She yelled, fighting against Kai, who was pinning her down.

She felt completely helpless and then suddenly the sounds of guns echoed through the woods, and the men who had been fighting them dropped to the ground, their bodies suddenly lifeless.

She could barely make Bellamy out as he headed directly for her, hitting the Kai's head with his gun, and pulling him off of her. She looked like a wild animal, her shirt covered in a mixture of her own blood and someone else's.

"Clarke?" Bellamy had crouched down beside her, his hand reaching for hers instinctively. "Clarke, talk to me."

"I'm fine." She said, before looking into his eyes. "Help me up?"

Bellamy nodded before pulling her to her feet. The first thing she did was move toward Murphy, who was being looked at by her mother.

"Clarke!" Abby wrapped her arms tightly around her daughter. "I was so worried."

"It's okay. I'm okay." Her mom kissed her forehead.

"Let me check you out." Abby insisted and Clarke nodded.

"Just give me a moment." She said, her eyes darting toward Murphy.

"Of course, Sweetie."

Clarke dropped to her knees, grabbing hold of his face and gently wiping away the blood.

"You're alive." She breathed and despite Murphy's surprise of how relieved she sounded, he offered her a small smile.

"Surviving is kind of the one thing I'm good at."

"This is all my fault. If you hadn't been with me—"

"Hey— I'm glad I was." He said.

She didn't care that her mom was watching them, or that Raven and Bellamy and Monty and everyone would soon know exactly how she felt about John Murphy. No, for once she let her heart make the next move for her and kissed him. When she pulled away, he looked shocked. How the hell could something that good happen to someone like him? But it did, and with the way Clarke was looking at him, it seemed likely it would happen again.

"Let's go home." She said, and he nodded, grabbing hold of her hand and swearing to never let it go again.


End file.
